RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi campaign in Chhapra, the headquarters of Saran district, in Bihar
Former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi's first fight for a Lok Sabha seat, in her 17-year-old political career, will be an election by proxy.
Saran, from where she is contesting the Lok Sabha polls, has traditionally been the bastion of her husband and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad.
Lalu can't fight from Saran this year as he has been barred from contesting elections after he was convicted in connection to the multi-crore fodder scam case in September last year.
This is not the first time Lalu has handed over the political baton to his wife.
In 1997, Lalu was forced to resign after a seven-year-stint in the chief minister's post when reports about his involvement with the fodder scam surfaced.
Much to everyone's amazement, he picked his wife Rabri, a housewife with no political experience, to replace him.
But Rabri's recent electoral track record hasn't been good.
In the 2010 assembly elections, she contested from two constituencies -- Raghopur and Sonepur -- and lost from both.
But Lalu is not too perturbed by his wife's recent electoral setbacks.
While responding to a query on whether there will be any problems about Rabri contesting from Saran, Lalu, in his typical style, says, "There is no problem at all. Lalu is Rabri and Rabri is Lalu."
Rabri agrees with her husband.
"There will be no problem. The party cadres will work as enthusiastically for me as they would have for Lalu
ji," he says.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy, the party's candidate from Saran, may be hoping that Lalu's absence in the fray this year will have a positive effect on his electoral chances.
Rudy has won the Lok Sabha elections twice from Saran -- in 1996 and 1999 -- but he didn't have to go up against Lalu either time.
When he did finally contest the Lok Sabha election against Lalu from Saran -- in 2004 as well as in 2009 -- he was defeated.
Rudy brushes off questions about the Lalu 'effect' in Saran, saying, "It is not about Lalu not contesting. It is no big deal. I fight my own elections".
But the candidate who wins from Saran will have to deal with some very basic issues plaguing the high-profile constituency, like the absence of proper roads and functioning Anganwadi centres.